> a huge gamble with roommates that you might be stuck with someone terrible in a year (or longer) lease

Life involves taking risks and measuring people. Getting stuck with a shitty roommate is pretty low stakes on that spectrum.

> just a sign that people are getting richer (since this same trend is happening in all first-world countries)

Valid hypothesis. I’d posit Covid and the increasingly prevalence of single-child households are the more-proximate cause.